Every four years, a subset of voters, ranging from the ages of 18-19, get to show up to the polls to give their input on, arguably, the most important decision made in the United States, they will be helping in the decision of who will be selected as the 47th president of the United States. These voters are high school seniors and the upcoming election is no exception.
Based on where birthdays fall, most current high school seniors will be eligible to vote in the 2024 primary and general elections. Each senior voice here at Champe could be vital to the political future of America, so it is important they are provided with the resources and information to make an informed decision, or at least know how to register to vote. Derived from surveys conducted and compiled by statista.com, 55% of people from age 18-29 voted in the last presidential election. While this is impressive compared to previous years and generation’s youth voter turnout, it is still significantly less than the older demographic’s modern voter turnout. Hopefully, since presidential elections are viewed as crucial, the percentage of youth who vote will increase this year.
(statista.com)
“I feel excited but it doesn’t feel like a big deal to me, because even if I do vote, they use the electoral college to determine who wins. I’m mostly just excited to say ‘I can vote,’” senior Alexis McGuffin said. “I will do further research and eventually register, but to be honest, right now I’m just focused on getting into college.”
Along with a significant portion of the senior class, Alexis is enrolled in Government here at Champe, where voting is discussed at large, and classroom conversations are led about voter turnout, voter behavior, and public opinion polls, encouraging the senior students to go out and vote. According to Ms. Khan, an AP Government teacher here, students are shown, step-by-step, how to register to vote here in Virginia. All of these teachings and tools from College Board and Champe will hopefully ease minds like Alexis’ who are sure they want to vote but unsure about just how valuable their vote is.
“No, I do not feel prepared to vote, I haven’t really looked into it much, and honestly I most likely won’t end up voting,” senior Miriam Bijoy said.“I haven’t registered and don’t necessarily plan on it.”
Both McGuffin and Bijoy seemingly feel not only uncertain but unprepared to vote in the upcoming Virginia primary on March 5th, as well as the general election upcoming on November 5th, 2024. Based on conversations with multiple other seniors who are eligible to vote, there is an overwhelming lack of interest in politics that could be traced to a multitude of factors.
“It is important to get young voters involved, because it makes it more likely that they will participate actively in our elections later in life,” AP Government teacher Ryan Girard said. “I definitely see a difference in senior interest in voting in presidential years compared to other election years, but also just overall because of all of the media attention. We have several students that are pretty eager to get involved and vote in our upcoming elections”
Girard appears to see more interest in elections from his senior students than they evidently have. Notably, AP Government and Government are extremely beneficial resources for seniors who want to get involved in politics. However, only they can make the personal decision to register and vote. He also brought up an interesting point about social media; it can be an extremely useful resource for young voters, but a challenge arises when they have to navigate the abundance of information being shared.
“I do not feel prepared to vote at all,” Mcguffin said. “Right now I don’t watch the news, I don’t pay attention to president things at all, I literally just listen to my parent’s opinions and what they tell me.”
